Doctor Who: An Undying Hunger
by Hikan
Summary: The Doctor and Martha are enjoying a break at Martha's flat when Tish notices the television is acting oddly. That leads her and Martha to investigating the local station, while the Doctor may have to contend with an enemy he faced once before
1. Static Signal

This is the first in a series of Doctor Who stories I'm writing. The story takes place after the events of Series 3, and involves the Doctor, Martha and Tish. So, enjoy.

**An Undying Hunger**

**Chapter One**

**_London, Present Day_**

In a well-decorated flat overlooking a busy London street, two people- one male, the other female- were sitting on a dark blue couch and watching television. Their names were the Doctor and Martha Jones respectively, and although both were sitting on the couch, only one of them actually seemed interested in what was on.

'_And now... hour three of our special EastEnders marathon!'_

Martha groaned as she fiddled with the zipper of her navy jacket glanced at the television, which was currently playingthe _EastEnders _theme for the umpteenth time this day.

"Can't we watch something else, Doctor?" she asked her fellow couch companion, who was sitting up and watching the screen intently.

"Ssh!" he commanded. "This is one of the biggest cliffhangers yet. I've been reading the previews, and it seems that somebody's going to die. I've been anticipating this for _weeks._"

Martha sighed. "But couldn't you just skip ahead a few weeks and find out what happens then? I mean, you're a Time Lord and all..." She gestured to the TARDIS, which was currently occupying the space near the window of her flat with the orange curtains drawn firmly shut.

The Doctor looked deeply offended at this. "_Skip ahead a few weeks?_" he cried. "God, you really are insensitive, Martha. Why can't you let a man have a couple hours of honest-to-God telly?"

"You're not a man," shot back Martha. "At least not in the human sense."

"I was, once," retorted the Doctor, who lay back on the couch and resumed watching the programme.

They continued like this for about half an hour, the Doctor reacting to each moment portrayed on screen and Martha gazing silently at the wall.

Then, as the episode was nearing a commercial break, the silence was broken. Martha's buzzer rang.

The Doctor groaned as Martha rose from her seat and went to flick on the buzzer's switch.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Tish," was Martha's sister's reply from downstairs. "Can I come up now?"

"Sure, why not," answered Martha, at which the Doctor sighed.

"_Again with the insensitivity! _Martha, you do know I can't pause this episode _as it's broadcasting_, do you?"

His dark-skinned companion did not respond, and soon the door opened to reveal Martha's sister, Tish.

"Hello, Martha. Hello, Doctor," she said quickly, recognizing the latter's presence.

The Doctor merely glanced up at Tish with a sullen glare and resumed watching _EastEnders. _Tish turned to Martha.

"What's up with _him?_" she muttered as she gazed at the Time Lord.

"Telly," Martha muttered back. Tish brightened.

"Ooh! I had a boyfriend like that once, Steven I think, who absolutely _hogged _the telly. I mean, he wouldn't let me have a minute of it, so I—"

"_Oh come on!_" exclaimed the Doctor, glaring up at the Jones sisters from where he sat in front of the television. "Why do you have to distract me with your bloody conversations? Now the episode's over, and I don't know who died!"

He gestured at the television screen as the titles to another show came crashing in. However, those titles were suddenly replaced by static.

"What's going on?" asked a perplexed Tish as the Doctor fiddled with the remote, trying to restore the program to its original state.

"I don't know," the Doctor muttered as he aimed his sonic screwdriver at the screen in an attempt to fix whatever was causing the problem. Unfortunately, that only meant more static.

"Well, at least we know that it's alien now," said the Doctor cheerfully, "and not just a rubbish service provider."

"_Alien?" _mouthed Tish to Martha, who nodded and continued observing the Doctor's efforts.

"Yes, _alien_," said the Doctor, whose many talents now seemed to include lip-reading. "Count yourself lucky, Tish. You're about to have your first alien encounter."

"So that thing at LazLabs and all that... it wasn't alien?" asked a confused Tish.

"Nope," responded the Doctor as he turned the T.V. off. "Just a genetically modified human. All in a day's work."

Then his face turned serious. "All right, Martha, you and Tish can head to the local station and see if there's anything going on there. I'm just going to visit an old friend of mine, and if she's not involved, then it makes our work here a lot easier."

Martha nodded and, after grabbing her coat, left the flat with Tish. The Doctor, on the other hand, headed inside the TARDIS (which Tish had not noticed) and closed the doors shut.

-

As the Doctor entered the TARDIS, he walked through the console room, up a stairwell, through numerous corridors and past a bedroom before reaching his destination.

The Time Lord glanced at the door- inscribed with "Rubbish" in Gallifreyan- and pushed it open to find himself in a veritable pile of junk. Sifting through a pile that contained a multitude of items including a well-worn recorder and a rather tacky umbrella, the Doctor looked at the room in despair.

"Where _is _it?" he muttered, scratching the top of his head. "I could have sworn it was here just last week..."

He frowned. "Unless... no. That's impossible! Although, after that business on Krop Tor, nothing should be deemed impossible anymore..."

"Wait a minute," murmured the Doctor. "If it's missing... then _they're _in danger..."

The Time Lord rushed back to the console room and, within minutes, moved the TARDIS out of Martha's flat.

"...and I may already be too late..."


	2. Suspicions

**Chapter Two**   
Martha and Tish walked as quickly as they could down a flight of stairs and over to another apartment door labeled 14.   
"Martha," said Tish, with a perplexed look on her face, "this isn't the station."   
"I know," replied her sister as she knocked on the door. "But Seth works at the local station, so he may be able to tell us more about what's going on."   
Minutes later, the door opened to reveal a rosy-cheeked, slightly plump woman with blond hair in her mid-thirties that smiled at the two women at her door.   
"Hello, Martha! And you've brought your sister, too! Lovely. Shall I put the kettle on?"   
"Alice," said Martha quickly, "we were wondering if Seth was in."   
Alice shook her head. "Sorry, Martha, but he already left for work. If it's something important, you can leave a message with me."   
"Thanks, Alice," replied Martha, "but it looks like we won't need to do that. Bye!"   
Alice smiled and waved as the Jones sisters continued their hurried walk down the stairs to the street below.   
-   
Seth Harper walked into the door of the CT-TV broadcasting station and immediately greeted the security guard, as was his routine each and every day.   
"Hey, Norman," he said to the balding guard, who smiled and waved as the tall, lanky raven-haired man made his way to his cubicle. Almost immediately, all the CT-TV employees were called into the manager's office for a meeting.   
"Right," said the manager, a nervous-looking man in his early forties, "I got a call this morning from the board of directors, and it seems that we'll all have to wear these little buttons on our persons from now on. Company policy."   
As the buttons were distributed and people began to exit the office, one of Seth's coworkers, Chloe, looked at him curiously.   
"Set," she said with an eyebrow raised, "you seem to be _smiling. _I've worked with you for years, and you've never smiled over something as mundane as new buttons. Is something the matter?"   
"Oh, no," replied Seth, the grin adorning his face leaving. "Nothing's wrong, Chloe. Nothing at all..."   
Then he walked off, leaving Chloe confused in his wake.   
-   
Martha and Tish rushed down the street towards CT-TV, which was easily recognizable due to the concave roof covered with mirror panels the building sported.   
"I hope we're not late," gasped Martha as she paused to catch her breath while Tish strode confidently on. "This is exhausting..."   
"You should have taken advantage of the discount I got when I worked at that gym," Martha's sister replied smoothly. "Makes a world of difference."   
Martha glared at Tish and quickly caught up with her just as they entered the station. Tish immediately directed her attention to the security guard.   
"Hold on, ladies," he said with a frown. "You're not allowed—"   
"Hello there," said Tish, walking over to Norman and shaking his hand. "My name's Tish Jones. I'm here for that interview about the LazLabs incident. You know, sort of a "six months later" kind of thing?"   
Norman frowned. "I don't recall—"   
"Thanks!" Before Norman could finish his sentence, Tish had walked into the main part of the station with Martha in tow.   
The security guard just shrugged and continued reading the newspaper. After all, there were a lot of things that went on in this building that he wasn't privy to. Maybe this was one of them.   
-   
Martha and Tish entered the cubicle part of the CT-TV building to find everyone busy at work making up schedules, answering feedback lines, and various other tasks. The Jones sisters began to make their way quietly past the cubicles, but they were stopped by someone in a "Band On The Run" T-shirt and brown pants.   
"Hello," he said quietly, so as not to be overheard by the other employees. Martha looked up in shock.   
"_Doctor?_" she whispered. Tish had a different response.   
"I didn't know you were a Wings fan!" she muttered as the Doctor smiled.   
"Yes, I am; I have all their albums, even the one that wasn't printed due to its theft by the Bandits of San Kaloon. Anyhow, we need to get to the bottom of this. Martha, do you have any ideas as to what could be causing the static?"   
Martha shook her head, at which the Doctor sighed. "No? No suspicious individuals present? No-one with a zip around their head or an iron deficiency? I've been working undercover here for the past few days, trying to figure out what the problem is, but—"   
"A few _days?_" Tish stared at the Time Lord in shock. "B-but that's impossible! How could you have—?"   
"I'll explain later, Tish," Martha said hastily. "Please continue, Doctor."   
He nodded. "But there doesn't seem to be one suspicious person among the lot of them. No-one lonely or isolated, just a toilet in the basement that's broken and that no-one uses anymore. It's just a normal, cheerful work environment..."   
The Doctor frowned.   
"Which makes the whole thing far harder than I expected..."   
-   
In a dark corner of the basement washroom, a small television set glowed with a grey light. Displayed on its screen was an elderly woman with a tired look to her eyes.   
"I must feed," she said quietly to the figure in front of her, "or I will die. And you don't want _that _to happen, do you?"   
The figure nodded. "You'll have loads of food soon, I promise."   
"Good." The elderly woman fell asleep as the figure headed back upstairs.   



End file.
